The present invention relates to solid state high power microwave amplifier modules such as are used in radar array systems.
High power microwave power amplifier applications have in the past often employed travelling wave tubes to provide the power magnification. Such applications require highvoltage power supplies, are quite heavy and consume considerable space.
Solid state power amplifier modules have been proposed or built, which employ radial combiner circuits to combine the outputs from a number of solid state amplifiers using conventional microwave integrated circuit technology. A. Fathy and D. Kolokitis, in their paper "Analysis and Design of a 30-Way Radial Combiner for Ku-band Applications," RCA Review, Vol. 47, December 1986, pages 487-508, describe a radial combiner circuit which can be employed in a solid state power structure. The physical problem of interconnecting the power divider, amplifiers, and combiner circuits results in a relatively large structure as can be seen in the circuit and in previous implementations. This invention describes a method of overcoming this problem and results in a much more compact circuit.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a solid state power module which has cost, size and reliability improvements over the above approaches.